1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to data communications, and in particular relates to a method and apparatus for integrating narrowband and wideband data transports to optimize the use of the wideband channel through the effective use of the narrowband channel.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Internet is a rapidly growing communication network of interconnected computers and computer networks around the world. Together, these millions of connected computers form a vast repository of hyperlinked information that is readily accessible by any of the connected computers from anywhere at any time. To provide mobility and portability of the Internet, wireless Internet computing devices were introduced and are capable of communicating, via wireless data networks, with the computers on the Internet. With the wireless data networks, people, as they travel or move about, are able to perform, through the wireless computing devices, exactly the same tasks they could do with computers on the Internet.
Regular mobile phones can return calls, check voice mail or enable users to be available for teleconferences anywhere at any time. However, new two-way interactive communication devices, such as mobile devices or mobile phones, would meld voice, data, and personal digital assistants (PDA) functionality into a single portable equipment that is not just reactive to calls but also proactive, through a proxy computer, accessing a myriad of public and enterprise information services in the Internet. For example, a traveler may request the departure time of a next available flight when on the way to an airport, or a trader may purchase shares of stock at a certain price. The pertinent information from these requests or transactions may include the airline and the flight number for the traveler, as well as the stock name, the number of shares and the price being purchased for the trader. To be timely and periodically informed, one way is to electronically communicate the information requests into a mobile device that is connected to a wireless data network. The wireless data network, for example, connects, through a proxy server, to a flight information server or stock quote server from which the desired flight information or the current stock price can be retrieved by the mobile device on demand.
Alternatively, the traveler or the trader may be preferably informed of any available immediate flight information or a stock price that has hit a pre-set preferred price. It is, however, sometimes disturbing to inform the traveler or the trader of any updated changes to the flight information or the current stock price, especially the stock price being updated every second during trading hours. There is, therefore, a great need for a solution for informing users of any updates to their desired information and allowing the users to retrieve the updated information when needed. Further, in a circuit-switched network, such as GSM, a mobile device must establish a circuit in a carrier infrastructure via a wideband channel before communicating with any server on the network. The connection, similar to a telephone line, can be both time consuming and costly to the users. Hence users generally prefer to have controls over the communication of their mobile devices through the carrier infrastructure when accessing updated information from a web server.